you don't know Jack

2007-06-06T09:07:00.001-04:00

jack idema

The Justice For Jack Idema Blogburst

Following MSM's coverage of the case of illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces soldier Jack
Idema can be an infuriating experience.

Usually, the cause of annoyance is the way in which journalists studiously ignore the
fact that a US citizen has been imprisoned illegally by agents of his own state for more than two years. Occasionally, however, these long periods of silence are punctuated by the kind profoundly misleading journalism that Big Media drones always resort to when forced to write
about the Idema case.

Thus:

An American citizen imprisoned in Afghanistan for running a private jail
for terror suspects has a new passport. His dog has been vaccinated
for overseas travel. But two months after being freed by presidential
decree, Jack Idema remains in his Afghan cell.

Technically, all of this is true. Jack was, indeed, imprisoned for running a private jail, and he was, indeed, freed by Presidential decree earlier this year. Only, what the AP's Jason
Straziuso fails to point out is that Jack and his men were cleared of all charges on appeal in March 2005. So. Not only does this mean that Straziuso is missing the very important 'falsely' qualification to his use of 'imprisoned', but that he also fails to ponder the question of why it took Karzai a full, two years to get around to ordering Jack's release. Then there's this:

They [the reasons Jack remains in jail] also involve documents that Idema says would finally prove his claim that he was a hired mercenary hunting al-Qaida suspects on a mission sanctioned by U.S. counterterrorism officials a claim that American authorities have denied.

Now, let's be quite clear about this: Jack Idema has never claimed to be a mercenary -- Quite the opposite, he has always denied receiving even one dollar from a foreign power. Moreover, whether or not the State Department choose to deny the fact that Jack and his team worked for the US is quite beside the point -- Way back in September 2004, evidence produced by Jack forced them to admit to accepting prisoners from him.

Straziuso save the best for last:
Another issue has been compensation demanded by one of the men Idema held in
his prison. The man, a senior judge called Sadiq, had originally wanted US$13,000 (9,700) in compensation, but told the AP that he gave Idema a letter on Friday forgiving him.
"Because I'm an Afghan Muslim, I forgive all these things," said Sadiq, who goes by
one name. "I'm not his enemy, he's not my enemy."Obviously, this attempt to portray Sidiq as the kindly, forgiving type might be a little trickier to pull-off if Straziuso actually stirred himself to mention the fact that, at the time Jack's team arrested him, the 'forgiving Afghan' in question was in possession of explosive detonators, Hezb-i-Islami membership cards and a letter of introduction from Mullah Omar.
It might also strike the AP's readership as more than a little odd that Sidiq feels the need to 'forgive' Jack at all -- He is, after all, on record as stating that the allegations of torture against Idema were fabricated and that, far from Jack stringing captive Afghans up in a (non-existent) basement, "there was no torture, we never saw, not beating, not slapping, not even a pinch. NOTHING".

Then again, it's to be assumed that the effectiveness of sneering hit-pieces like this one will always increase in direct proportion to the number of facts they either distort or omit.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Justice for Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose
work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: 202-225-4121 / Fax: 202-225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224.6342
Fax: 202-224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (Interested)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3154 / Fax: 202-228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
202-224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2731 / Fax 202-225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(Reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images
on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use
by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati
Search for Jack Idema

The Justice for Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Cao's Blog
Rottweiler Puppy
Causes of Interest
Stuck On Stupid
You Don't Know Jack
Right Voices
Causal Nexus
A Real Man
GM's Corner

Passport, passport, who's got the passport?

2007-05-23T15:13:00.000-04:00

jack idema
The Justice For Jack Idema Blogburst

Illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces Soldier Jack
Idema's struggle to wrest his own passport from the hands of his
own Government continues. As the weeks drag by without this appalling
situation getting any nearer resolution, it really is worth
considering the difference between the behaviour of the State
Department's little, trained minions and that of Jack's allies in the
Northern Alliance.

As regular readers will doubtless recall, Jack's search for justice has spilled out into the US courtroom of Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. Last time around, we concerned ourselves with the frankly laughable attempts of the State Department to explain why
Jack was occupying a wing of Afghanistan's highest-security prison six months after his 'official' release. In whatever alternate-reality State Department drones inhabit, the most plausible-sounding explanation they could offer boiled-down to the bizarre assertion that no one in either the US or Afghan governments could simply put Jack on a plane.

Certainly, there's a vein of black-comedy running through all this. Only, here's the thing: While State Department officials treat the illegal-imprisonment, torture and attempted murder of their countrymen as a laughing matter, many decent Afghans don't
seem to get the joke:

My name is Abdul Latif. I am a citizen and resident of the Islamic State of Afghanistan. I read, write and speak Pashtu and Dari.
I have worked for different government ministry departments. I was also in the resistance against the Russians, the Taliban, and Al Qaida terrorists. I now work for the Ministry of Justice as the senior Block Commander of the most dangerous area of Pulacharke. After my good friend General Sherzaman was killed protecting Jack two years ago, I was chosen to protect Jack. I was block commander in that area until the riots last year, and then took over Block 2. I control about 10 Colonels and another 100 officers beneath them. I have 1460 prisoners under my control, many are very violent terrorists who have killed many people. They are not allowed to have any relation with me because they are very bad criminals. But I eat dinner with Jack many times, and I feel Jack, Brent and Wahid are very good men and very good friends. I always know they were innocent and I myself heard our highest judges say they were innocent to my face.

This comes from Abdul Latif's affidavit to Judge Sullivan's court, and, in these two paragraphs, he tells us everything we need to know about both his, and Jack's, character.
Let's consider what he has to say.

Here is a man who has spent his entire life fighting ALL the right battles. When the Soviets invaded his homeland, he took up arms against what was then the second-mightiest army in the world. When the Taliban seized control of his country, he took up arms against them. And, when Al Qaida terrorists crawled into bed with the mullahs running pre-9/11 Afghanistan, Latif fought them as well.

Back in 2001, when US and British Special Forces (Jack Idema among them) entered
Afghanistan, Abdul Latif and his comrades were hemmed into a tiny, northern province of their own country, fighting what had been a losing battle against the forces of Islamofascism ranged against them.
And yet. Men like Abdul Latif still fought.

If this is the pedigree of the people who call Jack Idema 'friend', then what does
that say about the quality of those who tortured and imprisoned him?

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao
or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story,
Cao's Blog has a large
section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: 202-225-4121 / Fax: 202-225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224.6342
Fax: 202-224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (Interested)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3154 / Fax: 202-228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
202-224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2731 / Fax 202-225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(Reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images
on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use
by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati
Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Cao's Blog
Rottweiler Puppy
Causes of Interest
Stuck On Stupid
You Don't Know Jack
Right Voices
Causal Nexus
A Real Man
GM's Corner

2007-04-23T08:13:00.000-04:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

Although illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces soldier has now been officially released from prison in Afghanistan, it seems the US State Department is doing everything in its power to prevent him returning home.

Earlier today, Jack's Afghan lawyer, Rahim Ahmadzai, put out an affidavit which confirms many of the things the Free Jack campaign has been saying all along. Before presenting the facts, though, I'll let hmadzai introduce himself:
My name is Rahim Ahmadzai. I am an attorney licensed to practice law in all courts of Afghanistan. Prior to 2005, I was employed as an administrative member of the Supreme Court and by the National Security Courts of Afghanistan. I received my degree in Shariat law in 1979, and my Masters Degree in Islamic Religious Jurisprudence in 1988, and have practiced law or been a judge since.

Over the past 25 years, I served as a judge in the Human Rights court, then as a judge in the Family Court, then a judge in the Criminal Courts, then a Judge in the Juvenile Courts, then a Judge in the National Security Court, and finally, a member of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan. I was intimately involved in the trial of Cmdr. Jack Idema, Captain Brent Bennett, and Lieutenant Z. Wahid Rasuli Banderas.

So, question: how many high-court judges do you know who have the moral courage to step down from the bench in order to prevent a miscarriage of justice?

Well. Exactly.

Rahim Ahmadzai is to be commended for his bravery. That said, Ahmadzai has many interesting things to say on the subject of Jack and Brent's first 'trial: It was because of their trial, and the way it was mishandled and illegal, that I resigned from the Court and left the government in disgust. The entire trial and subsequent conviction was orchestrated and controlled behind the curtain by the United States Embassy in Kabul. These men never would have been charged or prosecuted had it not been for the United States Embassy.
It was a known fact that they were officially working for the Afghan National Security Advisor and Minister of Defense. The trial violated almost every aspect of the Afghan Penal Code, Criminal Code, and Constitution related to criminal trial conduct.

In the second trial the men were declared innocent, but again the US Embassy stopped their release. The complete illegitimacy of Jack's first, September 2004 trial is something we've remarked upon again and again in this blogburst. As it turns out, the 'ex'-Taliban judge who presided over that travesty, Bakhtyari, is now doing the kind of work more suited to a man of his dubious talents:

Judge Bakhtyari has since been demoted and reassigned as a small claims judge in civilian small claims court - to my knowledge, he does not have any formal education in law or any other subject.

While Bakhtyari struggles to resolve whose-goat-is-it-anyway? disputes in his small-claims courtroom, however, it really is worth asking why a group of US soldiers and their Northern Alliance allies wound up having their liberty taken away by a man with no legal (or, indeed, any) education. Were no competent judges available? Or, more likely, did the US State
Department actually prefer that Jack and Brent's case be presided over by an incompetent judge?

Whatever the truth of that, right now, Jack is faced with the following difficulties:

In March 2007, I visited Jack Idema and volunteered to represent him against certain Afghan officials, who, acting under the orders of the United States Embassy, violated his rights. I also volunteered to represent Captain Brent Bennett, who has
been illegally denied a visa to return to Afghanistan for his property. That visa was blocked at the direction of the United States Embassy in Kabul, which exercises extensive, if not full control, over the government agencies involved in the Bennett and Idema case. I also volunteered, at Jack Idema’s request, to represent, for the first time in my legal career, their dog, Nina Natasha Nikita, in an effort to
also secure the release of the dog from Afghanistan.
The United States Embassy has since blocked the return of Jack Idema’s original
passport, which is prima facie evidence of his innocence on several of the accusations made. Additionally, the United States Embassy has blocked the return of Jack Idema’s documents and property from the National Security Directorate (NDS).

Now, we will remember that one of the original charges against Jack was that he'd entered
Afghanistan illegally. Obviously, his passport is the key to disproving this entirely false allegation, which is why the US Embassy staff are currently refusing to hand the document over. They are also withholding documents that would prove his innocence on the charges of
kidnapping and torture. Here's Rahim Ahmadzai, describing his encounter with the US authorities in Afghanistan:

I was at NDS approximately three weeks ago, after the Saleh Order was signed,
when US government agents were there requesting NDS withhold the property, passport, and evidence and not follow the Saleh Order. After the US Embassy met with the 17th Division of the NDS, Director Modafi, who worked with (and for) the US Embassy in the original trial against these men, he refused to return Jack Idema’s and Brent Bennett’s property, documents, and evidence.

Let's put all this together. Here we have a US citizen, illegally-imprisoned for three years on the say-so of the US State Department and a small-claims court 'judge'. When said US citizen is finally released, the US authorities promptly confiscate all documents which would prove said
citizen's innocence. They even attempt to use said citizen's beloved pet dog as a bargaining-chip in the wrangle -- You get to go home with the mutt, we get the documents which prove your innocence.

How far we've fallen from the high purpose of those post-9/11 days. Back then, Jack Idema, and dozens of men like him, helped the Northern Alliance decimate the Taliban and their al-Qaeda cohorts, driving the bearded-crazies out of power in the name of a free Afghanistan. And
today? Today, Jack Idema fights to recover his own passport, while his lawyer, obviously disgusted with what has become of Afghanistan under Karzai, has the following to say:

Contrary to what appears on the surface, in Afghanistan in this country the American Embassy controls this government, completely. If you are employed by the Afghan government, you simply do not refuse the orders of the Embassy
unless you are ready to be fired or arrested.

This is an absolutely disgusting situation. Let's hope and pray it is resolved soon.

2007-03-22T08:33:00.000-04:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

It's now been seven very long weeks since anyone heard from illegally-imprisoned US Special Forces soldier Jack Idema.

For those of us involved in this campaign week-in, week-out, it is, perhaps, easy to forget just how strange this entire situation is.

Consider: here we have a US citizen, tried in a Taliban court and illegally-imprisoned for four years, who has, quite simply, been removed from all contact with the outside world. Right now, Jack is unable to:

Make or receive phone calls
Send or receive mail
Receive visitors
Receive care packages

Indeed, the isolation being imposed on Jack is so total that no one even knows where he is being held.

How different things are for the head-hacking, Taliban crazies who wind up in Afghan prisons these days:

An international dispute was developing last night after an Italian journalist kidnapped by the Taleban was released, apparently in exchange for five senior Taleban insurgents who had been held in an Afghan jail.
[...]
Mr Karzai's spokesman said: "There were some demands, and some of the demands were accepted. You see the result of it, the journalist was released. This was an exceptional case, and it will not happen again."
But Adrian Edwards, the UN spokesman in Afghanistan, said: "The UN does not negotiate with terrorists." The Afghan Independent Journalists' Association said that the deal was "not acceptable", and a spokesman from the US Embassy in Kabul said: "It is US policy not to make concessions to terrorists' demands."

Of course, this simply isn't true -- A recurring theme of the Free Jack Blogbursts has always been the steady trickle of Islamist fanatics Karzai has quietly set free in return for either hostage releases or, as with the Pulacharke riots in early-2006, in return for ceasing to repeatedly gang-rape 50 female prisoners.

Point of fact, the Karzai method for dealing with problematic Islamofascists has always been to offer them deals. Thus:

Threaten to behead a journalist -- Karzai will release some Holy Warriors
Threaten to butcher 50 female hostages in a prison riot -- Karzai will release some Holy Warriors

And

Complain your feathers have been ruffled because a man called Jack Idema arrested a Taliban High Court Judge -- Karzai will torture, illegally-imprison, then finally disappear the Green Beret in question.

Anything to oblige the head-hackers.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown - 011-93-70201908 (Fired)
US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908
(denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (202) 483-9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: 202-225-4121 / Fax: 202-225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224.6342
Fax: 202-224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (Interested)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3154 / Fax: 202-228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
202-224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2731 / Fax 202-225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(Reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation
Ron's Musings
Right Voices
7.62mm Justice
Special/Blown-It
And Rightly So!
Causal Nexus
Death To The Swiss
A Real Man

Background Update continued

2007-01-11T11:43:00.000-05:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

In March 2005, US Special Forces soldier Jack Idema and his men were declared innocent of kidnapping and torture on appeal. Since Jack remains illegally-imprisoned in Afghanistan's infamous Pulacharke Prison, however, it would be wise to look, again, at the first, August-September 2004, 'trial' that sent him there.

To begin, then, there was the judge in the case, Taliban sympathiser Abdul Baset Bakhtyari:

The original motion [from Jack and his defence team], like all motions filed, was ignored by Bakhtyari, who claimed the Interim Criminal Code, was merely a guideline, not really law, and that the laws of his former Taliban government would be applicable.

Quite apart from the rather obvious conflict of interest at work in having a Taliban judge try a group of Taliban hunters, this decision was no more legal than a US judge deciding to try his cases under Mexican law.

Next, there was the NDS Chief Prosecutor, Abdul Fatah, a man who had previously worked for the KGB during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan:

Fatah would pass the note up to prosecutor Dawari, who would then walk right up to the Judge’s bench and hand it to him while Jack, or later, one of the attorneys, would be talking. Bakhtyari would then read the note, and make some wild ruling. Regardless of how many times the defense objected or yelled about the secret communications, Bakhtyari would just ignore the complaint.

What we seem to be looking at here is much more serious than the procedural flaw of shutting the defence team out of communication between judge and prosecutor -- The dynamic was actually closer to the judge receiving instructions from the prosecution. So much for judicial impartiality.

What about a defence team? Well, although Idema and his men finally managed to acquire a U.S. lawyer, John Tiffany, to represent them, the state of play in the early stages of the trial was rather different:

Brent Bennett finally got a female Afghan lawyer in September 2004, ten days before the final verdict. She met Bennett ONE TIME for 20 MINUTES. She promptly informed Bennett that if she represented him Bakhtyari would not allow her to speak because she was a woman, and he did not normally allow women to appear in his court without a Burka. Then she dropped the real bomb– if she appeared in court for Bennett, she would be murdered.

There were similar problems for Jack and Brent when it came to translators. At first, 'Judge' Bakhtyari simply refused to appoint anyone to translate on the somewhat bizarre grounds that he had no intention of allowing the defence team to question any of the witnesses giving evidence against them.

After Jack filed a motion (written on paper smuggled into court under his shirt) demanding a translator, an official from the Italian Embassy was grudgingly appointed. This individual did a good job -- Too good, as far as Bakhtyari was concerned: he threatened the man with arrest if he returned to court after lunch on his first day.

Clearly, this still left the defence team in need of a translator, and Bakhtyari had this post filled by another former Soviet official whose behaviour was more to his liking:

[The] translator, who wasted no time interjecting his own thoughts on the defendants' guilt and talking about what horrible people they were. Of course he wasn't actually translating anything during this time, just offering his opinion to the court. This was common at every hearing, three difference translators were used by Bakhtyari, and all three acted as prosecutors, often refusing to translate Jack's words, or the videos the defense showed.
At one point, early on, either the third or fourth court appearance, Zorro leaned over to Jack and told him that the translator was changing all of his words and speaking as though Jack was confessing. Zorro was afraid to completely say what the translator was mis-interpreting because NDS had threatened to kill Zorro and arrest his family. Jack pointed out that the translator was making things up. The result? Upon return to NDS Zorro was placed in full body chains, where he remained for thirty days for telling Jack about the incorrect translations.

To say that Jack, Brent and the rest of Task Force Sabre 7 did not receive a fair trail in August-September 2004 is perhaps missing the point. On the strength of the above, it is quite arguable that they did not receive anything resembling a trial at all.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown - 011-93-70201908 (Fired)
US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908
(denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (202) 483-9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: 202-225-4121 / Fax: 202-225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224.6342
Fax: 202-224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (Interested)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3154 / Fax: 202-228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
202-224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2731 / Fax 202-225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(Reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation
Ron's Musings
Right Voices

Background Update

2007-01-08T09:22:00.000-05:00

jack idema
Free Jack Idema Blogburst

One aspect of the case of illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema that is always worth re-visiting is the horrendous treatment he and his men were subjected to after their arrest.

While Jack and his team (operating one of fifty-or-so similar SF safe-houses in Afghanistan) have been proven to have tortured no one, during the month of July 2004, Jack was beaten so badly by his pro-Taliban interrogators that he suffered the following injuries:

Detached retinas in both eyes
A broken sternum
Torn rotator cuffs

Jack's second-in-command, Captain Brent Bennett, was:

Beaten so badly he lost eight teeth
Shown a knife and threatened with death on numerous occasions
Told his nose and ears would be cut-off if he failed to co-operate

Major Ezmerai, 'Zorro', Syhail and Sherzai (the Northern Alliance officers and men on Jack's team), were subjected to:

Beatings
Electrocution
Scalding with boiling water
Death threats
Phalanga (where the bare feet are tied to a pole and hit with rods)
Torture with live scorpions
Starvation
Attempted rape

While these tortures were conducted by pro-Taliban officials at the NDS Headquarters in Kabal, they happened with the full knowledge of the U.S. State Department.

On July 11th 2004, Jack Idema contacted his embassy and claimed Prisoner of War status. His request was turned down by Sandra Ingram, Acting US Consul, who also refused to give Idema a copy of the Geneva Convention.

Visiting a second time (and after Jack managed to put his request for PoW status in writing), Ingram refused to either accept the document or pass it on to the Red Cross, claiming her State Department superiors 'ordered her not to do this'. Most disturbing of all, perhaps, Ingram (assisted by the FBI) also removed Jack and Brent's dog tags, Geneva Convention I.D. cards, and their U.S. passports.

During both of Ingram's visits to Jack and Brent during July 2004, it would have been quite obvious that both men had been badly beaten. Far from offering assistance to them, the U.S. State Department (along with the FBI, who also removed documents and videotapes seized by the NDS after Jack's arrest) moved to confiscate any and all means Jack and Brent had to prove either their innocence or the legitimacy of their mission in Afghanistan.

In the light of these facts, it's easy to see why the State Department continue to obstruct Jack's release -- These people have one hell of a lot of questions to answer.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown - 011-93-70201908 (Fired)
US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908
(denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (202) 483-9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: 202-225-4121 / Fax: 202-225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224.6342
Fax: 202-224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (Interested)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3154 / Fax: 202-228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
202-224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2731 / Fax 202-225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(Reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation
Ron's Musings

gobble, gobble, gobble-d-gook!!

2006-12-13T11:17:00.000-05:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

One of the most appalling aspects in the case of illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema and his recently 'freed' comrade Captain Brent Bennett has been the way the U.S. State Department has treated them.

Throughout their ordeal at Pulacharke prison, these men have been subjected to what can only be described as a campaign of petty (and not-so-petty) vindictiveness. Thus:

Last year the Northern Alliance made sure Jack and his men had a great Christmas, in spite of the the US Embassy. This year Rice's State Department is up to their old tricks again. US soldiers around the world were treated to spectacular Thanksgiving Day dinners. Incarcerated US citizens around the world were visited by US Embassy officials, brought Turkey and stuffing and holiday cheer, except in Afghanistan, where US Consul Edward Birsner issued a confidential memo prohibiting any US soldier from visiting Jack Idema.
ISAF and NATO followed suit, at the US State Department's request, and issued a directive prohibiting any coalition force member from visiting Pulacharke Prison. Two Military Police officers, in civilian clothes, assisted by Karzai's intelligence police were posted at Pulacharke's main gate to determine the identity of anyone attempting to ignore those directives. We find that odd. Perhaps the US State Department should spend more time hunting suicide bombers and terrorists and leave who's bringing turkey for Jack worries to someone else.

This really is a surreal situation -- As Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists murder as many U.S., British and NATO troops as they can in South Afghanistan, valuable resources are spent on setting up Operation Turkey and Stuffing. Memos are sent out to troops and undercover operatives are stationed outside Pulacharke (from where, we will remember, four high-level terrorists escaped just three weeks ago), all in order to -- what? Prevent one man eating lunch?!! Our tax dollars at work, folks.

Of course, this unintentionally-comic attempt to prevent Jack enjoying his Thanksgiving dinner is only the latest in a long list of petty cruelties. In his time at Pulacharke, Idema has been denied:

Access to clean drinking water
Access to mail from family and friends
Access to Red Cross care packages

The fact that Jack continues to receive enough essential supplies to keep him healthy and alive is entirely because of the willingness of his Northern Alliance and SF friends to play a game of cat-and-mouse with the State Department in order to smuggle water, food and medicine into Pulacharke ...

... Though, if Brent Bennett's experiences since his forced-ejection from Afghanistan are anything to judge by, the State Department don't just deny American heroes turkey dinners -- They can also prevent them returning home:

Brent Bennett has been denied a US passport to return to the country he was born in and fought for. The only details we can give are that Brent spent Thanksgiving with some commandos in a foreign country.

Shameful. Utterly, utterly shameful.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You should also contact the following people and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: - 301-560-5729
(Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
US Embassy- Afghanistan
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown - 011-93-70201908 (Fired)
US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908
(denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving- Gone)
US Consul Edward Birsner- number yet unknown
US Embassy Translator Wahid - 011-93-70201902
US Embassy Asst Consul Bashir Momman- 011-93-70201923
US Consul (friend) Dawn Schrepel- 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

Ambassador Massoud Khalili
(wounded with Massoud)
(Great and Kind man)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
Ankara, Turkey

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
(Northern Alliance Good Guy Fired- New Pro Taliban Ambassador)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 483-6414
Fax: (202) 483-9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (212) 972-2276 or 972-2277
Fax: (212) 972-9046

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: 202-225-4121 / Fax: 202-225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202-224.6342
Fax: 202-224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (Interested)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3154 / Fax: 202-228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
202-224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2731 / Fax 202-225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
(Reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation

Please help...

2006-12-06T08:35:00.000-05:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

One of the major factors in the campaign to free illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema has always been his relationship with the Northern Alliance.

Back in 2001, these were the Afghans who fought alongside U.S. and British Special Forces to remove the Taliban from power. Prior to that, and under the leadership of Commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, the Northern Alliance were responsible for driving the Soviets out of Afghanistan, and, later, of organising the only effective resistance to the Taliban -- By 2001, Massoud and the Northern Alliance controlled the only Taliban-free territories in the country. Indeed, Massoud was so feared by Islamofascists that, just two days prior to the 9/11 attacks, he was murdered by a pair of Al Qaeda suicide bombers posing as journalists.

This tragedy notwithstanding, it was the Northern Alliance presence in the Panjshir Valley that gave the U.S. a firm foothold from which to launch the 2001 campaign to remove the Taliban. Moreover, the efficiency with which Afghanistan was liberated owes much to the professionalism and bravery of the troops Commander Massoud trained -- Given proper support, equipment and direction by Special Forces soldiers like Jack Idema, they easily removed the Islamofascists from power, scoring a very major victory in the WoT with remarkable speed.

It's important that we revisit this story right now because some of Jack's Northern Alliance comrades (formerly his guards and protectors at Pulacharke) are now under arrest:

A few days ago, four top Al Qaeda terrorists escaped from Pulacharke. Karzai then imprisoned the anti-Al Qaeda Northern Alliance or UFMF colonels at the prison (which makes no sense). For a few days pro Taleban guards were in place, and it was during that time and the other guys were ‘off’ to be with their families, that the Al Qaeda terrorists escaped. So when the UFMF guards came back to their posts, they were suddenly faced with arrest, while the pro-Taleban guards had left some time after the Al Qaeda terrorists had escaped.

This is a situation that seems to defy logic -- That four terrorists escape Pulacharke prison on the watch of pro-Taliban guards, and the men arrested for dereliction of duty are all vehemently anti-Taliban NA personnel who weren't even on duty at the time of the escapes. What on earth is going on?

Well, the Northern Alliance in general, and those protecting Jack at Pulacharke in particular, are certainly an annoyance to the Karzai administration, so perhaps the prison escape was used as an excuse to settle some scores.

In any event, it's clear that the Karzai administration remains as committed as ever to a policy of imprisoning innocent men for the sake of political expediency. Jack Idema might be the most famous example of this, but he isn't the only decent man it has happened to.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

Write a letter of complaint about this despicable situation.

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation

just who is the enemy??

2006-11-29T10:30:00.000-05:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

Regular readers of the Free Jack Idema Blogburst will recall the events last month which resulted in Brent Bennett's forcible removal from Afghanistan. As Brent was being dragged out of the country in handcuffs, Jack Idema was involved in a tense standoff with the fifty-or-so Karzai goons who were trying to move him to a prison away from his (relatively) secure quarters at Pulacharke.

Although Northern Alliance Generals eventually resolved that situation by forcing Karzai's troops to stand down, the number of pro-Taliban, non- Northern Alliance guards working at Pulacharke Prison has been increasing steadily for some time.

This week (though apparently only reported by Cao's Blog and in the Gulf Times) the results of this policy became clear:

KABUL: Three men held at Afghanistan’s main prison on terrorism charges walked out of the high-security facility by pretending to be visitors, while another inmate was found dead, officials said Thursday.
The men who escaped from Pul-i-Charki prison on the outskirts of Kabul on Wednesday were facing sentences ranging from death to 15 years in jail after being convicted of terror offences, officials said on condition of anonymity.
They did not say if the three were linked to the Al Qaeda or Taliban extremist groups active in Afghanistan or give details of the charges.
The interior ministry refused to comment, saying it was trying to collect details.

Now, Pulacharke is Afghanistan's most secure prison. Aside from one illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier, it also houses some of the most brutal and dangerous terrorists captured during the WoT. And yet four such men (the very least of them jailed for fifteen years) simply walked out Pulacharke? Is this really credible? Or is it worth wondering if the presence of large numbers of Taliban-supporting guards at the prison was the real reason behind the ease of the terrorists' escape?

If so, then this is a very worrying development in terms of the Jack Idema story. After all, if the security situation at Pulacharke is now so weighted in favour of pro-Taliban elements that four of the world's most dangerous terrorists can simply stroll out of custody -- If this is the case, then how will Jack fair when the next carefully-orchestrated al-Qaeda 'riot' occurs? In the past, he's been able to count on the support of Northern Alliance guards. How will his new, pro-Taliban jailors react to a terrorist attempt on Jack's life? By fighting to protect him? On the strength of this week's events, that hardly seems likely, does it?

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation

Thanksgiving giving

2006-11-29T10:17:00.000-05:00

jack idema
Captain Brent Bennett Responds

Week after week, whenever we email the Free Jack Idema Blogburst to everyone on the Blogroll, we always make sure to stress that Jack and Brent are grateful for the effort people make in posting about their plight.

Of course, we know that Jack and Brent are decent and honourable guys. And, of course, we know they appreciate what we're doing for them.

But. Still. When Brent takes the time, and on Thanksgiving, no less, to leave the following message at RP, we really think his kindness and decency
deserves to be highlighted:

I would like to personally thank you.

What you, your friends, and the rest of the bloggers have done for us (Jack and I), helping us for quite some time now with the Free Jack Idema blogburst, it does not go unnoticed friend. Nowadays it is easier to hurt someone without ever leaving a chair or home, so when others take up for the cause it means more than you could ever imagine.

Of course, there would be no Free Jack Blogburst without all the people who participate in it, week-in, week-out. So huge pats on the back all round, people. Not only are we doing good here, but the good people we're doing it for do appreciate it.

There is, however, a downside to this:

Bennett was interrogated relentlessly, and threatened with death repeatedly shown a knife and told his ears and nose would be cut off. (To date Bennett has lost 8 teeth because of those beatings.) The torture was with the full knowledge and sanction of the FBI who were directing it, using the Afghans as proxies. FBI agents were at some points laughing about it in the hallway.

See, when a man like Captain Bennett thanks us for taking up his and Jack's cause, we really should make an effort to think hard about what it's like to have eight of your teeth bashed-out by a crazed, Islamofascist torturer. That, and the kind of strength it must take to still not break.

So, Brent, as much as we appreciate your thanks, really, it should be the other way around -- We are the ones who should be thanking you.

For standing in harm's way so we don't have to.

For taking the beatings so we don't have to.

And for listening to your own countrymen's laughter at your screams so we don't have to -- What? Pretend that the WoT can be won by smashing in the faces of the rough men who stand in harm's way to fight it?

But enough of politics. Today, of all days, I think everyone who posts on this topic, week after week, would like to say: 'Thank you, Jack and Brent. Stay safe, and have a very Happy Thanksgiving.'

Yea Nina!!

2006-11-02T09:16:00.000-05:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

After several, tense, weeks, those of us who've been concerned as to the wellbeing of Jack Idema's right-hand man, Brent Bennett, can finally relax a little.

Brent appeared, via sat-phone, on Jack's weekly radio broadcast two days ago. In spite of everything he's been put through, Brent was in good spirits, sharing a joke with Jack about how Nina the dog took a bite out of one of Karzai's creepy, Taliban-sympathising guards. While it's certainly good to hear from Brent after nearly a month of silence, however, he is still forced to remain in hiding, and can only say that he's 'somewhere in the Middle East'. Meanwhile, Jack Idema remains holed-up in Pulacharke Prison, threatened with a move into solitary confinement away from his Northern Alliance guards, and with President Karzai's goons still hovering nearby.

What makes this situation so intolerable, of course, is that both Jack and Brent were found Not Guilty of all charges against them at an appeal way back in February 2005. Here's Tawous Noorzai, Deputy Commander of Jack's block in Pulacharke, writing under oath, explaining why why Jack and Brent are still being criminalised:

I have attended their court hearings and the secret trial that was conducted in the Second Court [Court of Appeals]. I was present during the decision of the Court of Appeals (February 2005 Christian calendar), where all three men were declared innocent by a panel of three Chief Judges and three visiting judges, including the two Religious Judges who called their arrest a terrible crime against justice in Afghanistan. I personally was present in February or March 2005 (Christian calendar), when the Chief Judge, who had just returned from a vacation in America paid for by the American Embassy, said that although they were innocent, he needed to get permission from the US Consul before signing their release order. It was supposed to be done the next day and the judges were to call a press conference and announce their verdict and issue an apology from the Supreme Court. Several days later, I heard the Chief Judge, Ismail Abed, tell Mr. Jack that he could not release them because the American Embassy had "worked behind the curtain" and ordered the Court to stop their release.

Almost two years later, Jack and Brent continue to exist in this state of legal limbo -- one imprisoned, the other hounded into hiding -- on account of a crime that not even the Karzai government or the U.S. State Department believe they committed.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You should also contact somebody.

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation

October 26, 2006

2006-10-27T08:33:00.000-04:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

After the turmoil of recent weeks, the past seven days have been uneventful in the case of illegally-imprisoned Special Forces soldier Jack Idema.
Jack remains holed-up in his compound at Pulacharke prison, still under threat from the men President Karzai has posted outside the prison, but, for the moment, relatively safe.

As for Brent Bennett, Jack's right-hand man,

he remains free since giving his State Department captors the slip en route to back to the U.S. While this is, in itself, good news, it is still unclear precisely what his legal status actually is -- As Brent himself wrote in his account of his removal from Afghanistan, "the United States Consul seeks to make me a man without a country to go home to". Some reward for answering your country's call to hunt terrorists in a time of war, eh?

While Jack and Brent continue existing in what amounts to a legal limbo, however, President Karzai's behaviour toward hardened Taliban fighters couldn't be more different:

Early Sunday morning, 20 Taliban fighters/terrorists were released from Pulacharke as a ‘gift’ for Ramadan. This, I’m certain, is to ensure they’ll join their terrorist brothers in the south where the American food is being dropped to help the Pashtun/Taliban. Meanwhile, the Red Cross food supplements to the women in the North has been cut off. The money and the food is going to help the Taliban fighters and their families, which barely seems possible, while the Northern Alliance, our real allies, are suffering through the beginning of another cold winter without the aid they had from America before.

This situation -- the release of Taliban prisoners and the shifting of aid from friendly to hostile Afghan provinces -- closely relates to the Jack Idema case.

From day one, the Karzai administration has pursued a policy of appeasing terrorists and fanatics. This is why Jack and his men wound up in prison after they arrested an 'ex'-Taliban judge. It's why food aid is being siphoned away from the Northern Alliance who fought with us in 2001 in order to feed the very terrorists who are still fighting (and killing) our troops today. It's why Jack Idema is sitting in a prison cell, even as 20 convicted terrorists walk free, presumably in order to rejoin the Global Jihad.

And, of course, all of this is being paid for by the U.S., British and Afghan people, through our taxes, and, on the battlefield, with our soldiers' blood.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation

What's Going On????

2006-10-18T08:32:00.000-04:00

JAck idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

So where do things stand with Jack Idema, the U.S. Special Forces soldier being held illegally in Afghanistan?

On the face of it, the situation seems to have stabilized:

Jack continues to broadcast his weekly Wide Awakes Radio show from Pulacharke prison
Captain Brent Bennett, in spite of being bundled out of Afghanistan against his will by the U.S. State Department two weeks ago, remains free
Jack now has his friends in the Northern Alliance watching his back again
Solitary Confinement Cell Number 10 at Tawab Keef prison, reserved by Karzai for Jack, remains empty

... So has everything returned to 'normal'? Well, no. For one thing, the Karzai/State Department plan was at least partially successful in that it separated Jack from one of his right-hand men, something neither Idema nor Brent Bennett are happy about. Then there's this:

Idema Update 10/5: Although it appears that Karzai special police have been withdrawn from Pulacharke, Jack Idema is still barricaded in and preparing for another attempt on him at his POW compound. Karzai's men cut down his satellite dishes on the Pulacharke tower and he has not been allowed to get food or water. A 50 man force has been kept a short distance away waiting for orders. The regular officers at Pulacharke have refused to him attack again. The appearance is that everything is back to normal and there are no problems. Appearances can be deceiving. In the prison command say another attack by outside forces is inevitable.

There are two issues here, and both of them are serious.

First, and obviously, having Karzai's '50 man force' parked outside Pulacharke doesn't exactly bode well for Jack's future wellbeing. Clearly, if the plan to move him to Tawab Keef had been completely aborted, the force would have been stood down. Instead, they remain ready to move on Idema again -- It only takes an order from Karzai or, as we've shown in the past, the U.S. Embassy.

The second issue is that of Idema's access to food and water. Although the U.S. Embassy are duty bound to ensure that American citizens imprisoned abroad have access to a clean supply of drinking water, since Jack and Brent were moved to the relative safety of their annex by the Northern Alliance two years ago, the State Department have blocked all access to clean drinking water. This is a major issue, since, for Westerners, Afghan water is highly unsafe to drink. Because of this, Jack has always relied on friends in the Northern Alliance and elsewhere to supply him with food and clean water -- If this is now being blocked by Karzai and the State Department, then Jack's health is in very real jeopardy.

So where do things stand with Jack Idema? With his satellite communications curtailed, his access to safe food and water cut-off, and fifty-plus hostile troops stationed around the corner, just waiting on the order to haul him off to Tawab Keef and a solitary confinement cell -- With all of this stacked against him, things are looking pretty grim.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You should also contact the people listed and make your feelings known,
especially to write letters of complaint about this despicable situation!

Latest Info...

2006-10-11T10:27:00.000-04:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

While there have been no changes in the circumstances of Jack Idema and Captain Brent Bennett since last week's Blogburst, we are beginning to discover more details of what happened two weeks ago.

For anyone interested in reading Brent's own account of his forcible removal from Pulacharke prison, his statement can be found, in full, here and here. There's also an affidavit from one of Jack and Brent's closest allies, Lieutenant 'Zorro' Wahid Rasuli Banderas, who elected to stay by Idema's side after he was released from prison in 2005.

Also of much interest is the following account by none other than Tawous Noorzai, the Deputy Commander of Block 3 at Pulacharke. Here's how he introduces himself:

My name is Tawous Noorzai. I am employed as Deputy Commander of Block 3, where Captain Brent Bennett, Cmdr. Jack Idema, and Lieutenant Z. Wahid Rasuli Banderas were housed at Pulacharke Prison. I have held various positions in the Ministry of Justice over the past four years, including, Block Commander, Special Deputy, before that I was a commissioned officer in the Ministry of Interior for 19 years.

And here's how he describes Jack Idema:

For all of the time here at Pulacharke these three men have been the most liked and respected men ever at this prison, and this includes officers. They have never been considered prisoners, they have never been treated as prisoners, and they have never been called prisoners. Mujahadeen all over Afghanistan consider these men heroes of our country, and we all believe that they were oppressed without any crime except saving the lives of our Mujahadeen leaders (United Front) [Commander Massoud’s UN recognized government prior to the interim government]. Everyone at Pulacharke knows that their case is political. On the roster here they have been listed as political prisoners by the Minister of Justice. They have Prisoner of War Identification cards, and all five generals who have been Commandants at Pulacharke have given them all full Prisoner of War rights here. They could escape at any time, but they have never once even attempted this. During the last three prison uprisings, these three men have been against the prisoners and terrorists, and with the officers. Cmdr Jack ran a command post, with Captain Brent, Lieutenant Banderas, and another Lieutenant during the riot early this year, where all of the senior officers slept and where he helped keep our communications working and other things that helped stop the riot.

I'm quoting at length here because it really is important to grasp how well-liked Jack and Brent are among their Northern Alliance 'jailors'. The bond of loyalty between Jack and the Northern Alliance is something we've stressed time and again ... So how was it that Brent could be removed from Afghanistan? And how did Jack wind up having to fend off Karzai's troops with a can of gasoline?

Last week, the American Embassy ordered the new general to attack Jack, Captain Brent and Lieutenant Banderas. They were to attack them, drag them out of their compound at Block 3, and turn them over to the American Embassy. In the recent past, Ministry of Justice officers at Pulacharke Prison had refused to take any action against them, officers have died for them, and most officers here would die for them again. When Captain Brent went to dinner with the Security Commandant last week, the American Embassy made their call to a man here who is not an officer, and started their plan against them. They surrounded Captain Brent and attacked on top of Cmdr Jack. The officers involved were not our past regular officers, and most of us were home. I was not there when the attack happened, and almost all of the longtime senior officers had been given that night off to spend Ramadan with their families.

Clearly, then, a great deal of planning went into the attempt to remove Jack and Brent from Pulacharke. Regular guards were given time off and non-Northern Alliance troops were drafted in. What's more, it's becoming very clear that most of the shots were called from the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan:

This is hard for people to understand, but in this country the American Embassy controls this government, more than the Russians ever did. If you refuse the orders of the US Embassy you can be fired or put in jail. This is not done directly, it is done through our high levels "behind the curtain" [the Afghan phrase used for this]. This is what happened here. When General Shamir [Pulacharke's recently-replaced Commandant] refused the Embassy, they put pressure on the Minister who passed the threat to the new Brigadier General.

Let's be quite clear about this: when Deputy Commander Tawous Noorzai uses the term 'threat', he isn't exaggerating:

The only people responsible for the action against Captain Brent and Cmdr Jack were the Americans at the Embassy. They ordered this. No Afghan officer or official ordered this or wanted this. For writing this I will probably be fired or arrested and I say these things because it is truth, I just ask that if am arrested the American Embassy not hurt my family and not order anyone to hurt my family or bribe anyone to hurt my family.

So this is the real deal in Afghanistan today -- An officer in the Northern Alliance, the force who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us in the fight against the Taliban, is fearful of speaking the truth because someone in the U.S. Government on the ground may 'hurt his family'. This is absolutely outrageous.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You should also contact anyone in the WHAT CAN YOU DO post and make your feelings known about this despicable situation.

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack
Right Wing Nation

WHAT CAN YOU DO??

2006-10-06T08:49:00.000-04:00

jack idema

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You can also contact the following people and make your feelings known:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: – 301-560-5729 (Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown – 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908 (denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving)

US Embassy Translator Wahid – new – 011-93-70201902

US Embassy Translator Bashir Momman– 011-93-70201923

US Consul (friend of Jack's Now fired) Dawn Schrepel– 011-93-70201908

Embassy of Afghanistan (Good guys, Northern Alliance)
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Ph: 202-483-6410, Fax: no. 202-483-6488

Ambassador Massoud Khalili (wounded with Massoud)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
New Delhi, India

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (+1-202) 483 6414
Fax: (+1-202) 483 9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (+1-212) 972 2276 or 972 2277
Fax: (+1-212) 972 9046

Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E880
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Ph: (703) 692-7100
Fax: (703) 697-9080

Lt General William Boykin
Deputy Undersecretary
of Defense for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E836
Washington, DC 20301
Ph: (703) 697-0170
Private Fax: (703) 697-9080

Stephen Cambone
Principle Deputy Secretary for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E
Washington, DC 20310-0100

General Peter J. Shoomaker
Chief of Staff, Department of the Army
200 Army Pentagon – Room # 3E528
Washington, DC 20310-0200
Ph: (703) 695-2077 / Fax: (703) 614-5268

The Honorable John D. Negroponte
Director National Intelligence
New Executive Office Building
725 17th Street, N.W., Room 4203
Washington, DC 20503

The Committee
On Homeland Security
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: (202) 225-4121 / Fax: (202) 225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18
Email

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
310 New Bern Avenue, Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Fax: 919.856.4053

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (of Interest)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154 / Fax: (202) 228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2731 / Fax (202) 225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

2006-10-06T08:32:00.000-04:00

jack idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

It's been an amazingly busy week in terms of developments in the campaign to free Jack Idema and Captain Brent Bennett, the U.S. Special Forces soldiers illegally imprisoned in Afghanistan. Not only has a great deal taken place since last Thursday, but there has also been a fair amount of misinformation given out in MSM. Accordingly, what I'd like to do is present an accurate timeline of events. All of the information below comes directly from Jack Idema himself, speaking via Cao's Blog and the SuperPatriots, who are U.S. Special Forces soldiers working in the campaign to help Jack and Brent.

Tuesday 26th September: Two cells, numbers 2 and 10, are cleared of Afghan prisoners at the Tawab Keef prison near the U.S. Embassy in Kabal. Everyone at Tawab Keef is informed that these cells are to be used to hold Jack and Brent, in solitary confinement and without the Northern Alliance guards who currently protect them at Pulacharke.

Thursday 28th September: Jack and Brent are invited to take their evening meal with the Commandant of Pulacharke prison. This isn't an unusual occurrence by itself, but Jack isn't feeling well and declines the invitation. This, oddly, sparks a flurry of phone calls to Jack, begging him to attend the dinner. Brent finally agrees to attend without Jack.

When Brent arrives at the dinner, he becomes suspicious, and calls Jack, telling him he has the feeling he's about to be ambushed. Jack tells Brent to just get up and leave.

Brent calls Jack a second time, telling him that he's now being prevented from returning to his quarters. Idema then tries to reach Brent, but finds himself locked in his quarters -- An unusual occurrence, since the ordinary Northern Alliance guards usually trust Jack not to leave the prison.

25 soldiers surround Brent during the 'dinner' and arrest him.

40 soldiers attempt to storm Jack's compound at the prison. Having survived more than a dozen assassination attempts, however, Jack is prepared to defend himself. He kicks a large can of gasoline down the stairs toward the advancing troops and lights his Zippo. They quickly withdraw.

Friday 29th September: Luckily, Lieutenant Banderas was not in the prison at this time, and managed to contact a group of Northern Alliance generals. They, in turn, used their political muscle to force the troops surrounding Jack's compound to stand down. Brent Bennett, however, remains in custody, whereabouts unknown.

Saturday 30th September: The next we here from Brent is at this point, when the press begin reporting that he has been 'released' and is on his way back to the States, accompanied by US State Department officials. In fact Brent was in custody, handcuffed, and forced to leave Afghanistan and Jack Idema behind. The intention, it seems, was to transport Bennett, presumably back to the US, but certainly out of Afghanistan, and certainly against his will. This 'Plan B' was necessary because the State Department and Karzai had failed to capture Jack Idema -- For their 'Plan A' to work, they needed both men locked down and silenced in Tawab Keef prison. Since this hadn't happened, they decided to force Brent out of the country, then, we presume, try again to capture Jack.

When Brent and his handlers arrived in Dubai, however, the immigration police refused to accept custody of Brent's passport and handed the documents from the State Department officials back to Brent. Brent Bennett then promptly gave his captors the slip and, according to Cao: 'Is now somewhere, but not on the way back to the US'.

Finally, there's this, from Dan at SuperPatriots:

Bennett family: Brent is fine, no thanks to the US State Department. A teammate of ours spoke to him. He is no longer in State Department custody, and the information on Cao's blog can be confirmed. He says he cannot make contact right now for reasons we can’t go into. Actually I should say he is not just fine, he is safe and continuing to support his teammates from an undisclosed location. Jack and Zorro are also fine, facing continued assaults by the State Department, but in good spirits and holding out while the dust settles. Rumor is that certain members of the Afghan govt are not happy about the State Department and FBI using Afghan forces for an illegal operation and attempted illegal extradition of Americans. Kabul TV announced tonight that the Supreme Court admitted the men had been innocent all along.

So, yes, it's been one hell of a week.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You can also contact SOMEBODY.

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack

2006-10-06T08:27:00.000-04:00

jack idema
Brent Bennett Freed?

It's beginning to look as though Captain Brent Bennett has been released from prison:

KABUL, Afghanistan - An American was released from an Afghan prison and flown out of the country Saturday after serving more than two years for running a private prison as part of a freelance hunt for terrorists, officials said.
Court documents filed Friday in Washington, D.C., show that U.S. officials planned to secure Brent Bennett a passport and a ticket out of the country, and an Associated Press reporter saw a man identified as Bennett board a plane for Dubai late Saturday.
It was not clear if Bennett, 29, was free or in the custody of U.S. officials. He was held in a private room at the airport and journalists were prevented from talking to him.

So what's going on? Well, we know from Jack Idema's own account (speaking both to the AP and to members of the Free Jack campaign), that Brent was removed from the Task Force Sabre compound by force last Thursday. What's less clear is if he was also forced to leave Afghanistan. It certainly looks as though the U.S. officials moving him around have gone to great lengths to keep him out of sight, and are denying him the right to speak with members of the press -- If Bennett really is a free man, then why such heavy-handedness on behalf of the U.S. and Afghan authorities?

Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long before getting answers to some of these questions, and in the meantime, at least, we can breathe a sigh of relief that both Brent and Jack are out of immediate danger.

2006-10-06T08:25:00.000-04:00

jack idema
UPDATE: According to an email from Kender, who Jack managed to contact earlier today, the situation now is that Jack now has Northern Alliance protection, and that Karzai's goons have backed off for the time being.

However. Captain Brent Bennett is still missing, presumed to be stuck in the al-Qaeda section of the prison. If this is the case, clearly, his life is at great risk.

Here's Kender, quoting Jack:

He [Jack] mentioned something about Karzai's guys finding out what a 5 gallon can of gas and a Zippo lighter would do......I don't know what he did but I think at the moment he is safe.

Also. Jack is receiving 'conflicting reports' concerning Brent's whereabouts. As soon as we learn anything definite, or just what happened with regard to Karzai's troops and that '5 gallon can of gas' we'll let you know. END OF UPDATE

2006-10-06T08:23:00.000-04:00

jack idema
Jack And Brent Are In Serious Trouble

While two-faced, Taliban-appeasing Afghan President Karzai spends a week in the U.S. lecturing everyone on how to deal with terrorism, back in Afghanistan, Jack Idema and Brent Bennett are fighting for their lives:

As of 11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time [Thursday], Idema’s compound in Pulacharke is burning. Bennett has been taken by forces loyal to Karzai to the Al-Qaeda portion of the prison, where rumor has it and it is reasonable to presume he is being tortured.

Well, yes, we have been here before -- Jack and Brent have survived more than a dozen assassination attempts in the past. This time, however, they're under direct attack from forces loyal to Karzai, who have already captured Brent and handed him over to Al-Qaeda prisoners in their section of the prison.

Before his communications were cut-off, Jack Idema had the following to say late Thursday:

"This is it, Karzai and the US has finally ordered them to use weapons against us, the new General Sadiqi, has said that he was given orders to shoot to kill if we resisted. We may not make it through the night. if not, bye. At least you know what finally went down. They are going to cut all the phones off in this area soon if they do come in. My block is on fire, surrounded, and they already got Brent, I will hold out to the end.
goodbye friends,
Jack"

This does not look good, not good at all.

2006-10-06T08:20:00.000-04:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

One of the things worth stressing about the case of Jack Idema and Brent Bennett, the two US Special Forces soldiers held illegally in Afghanistan, is that the injustices they've suffered weren't aberrations. All across Afghanistan, right now, the freedoms men like Idema, Bennett and the Northern Alliance won for the Afghan people are being rolled back in an effort to appease Islamists and 'former' Taliban members.

A case in point is the reintroduction of the infamous Office for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, a move which prompted the following objection from the Afghan Bar Association [pdf]:

The Afghan Bar Association seriously and completely opposes the establishment of a new Afghan Government Office for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue. This Office, which was established by the Taliban terrorist government was known as Amrer Bil Maroof Wa Nahee Anil Monka, Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue. This office, under our Taliban oppressors, became infamous for corruption, abuse of power, terrorism, torture, and murder. Under the Taliban, this office was responsible for countless deaths of innocentAfghans for crimes ranging from wearing nail polish, to failing to pray or shaving beards. The Afghan people, after 25 years of war and struggle, know this office as the face of terror and oppression, a terrorist operation, which struck fear in the hearts of all Afghans and imposed their vicious and brutal will upon our people with the whip, the braided cable, and the machinegun.

Those of us who've followed the Idema case for some time now shouldn't find this, latest move of President Karzai's surprising -- It was with his blessing that Jack, Brent and the rest of Task Force Sabre were subjected to a trial under Taliban 'law', presided over by a Taliban judge, and this only a few months into Karzai's Presidency. Two years down the line, it seems as though the re-Islamisation of Afghanistan is gathering pace.

These two issues -- the campaign to free Jack and Brent and the campaign to keep Afghanistan free of Taliban-style religious police -- came together in Washington recently, when a group of American and Afghan women, dressed in burkas, handcuffed themselves to railings outside the Afghan embassy:

The Taliban executed women for wearing nail polish. A FREE THEM NOW spokeswoman said, "Mr. Hamid Karzai simply tortures them and imprisons them, not for nail polish, but for speaking out, divorce, adultery, sex outside of marriage, and many other things. Americans must never fear exercising the Constitutional rights paid for with American blood for more than 200 years." The women remained anonymous under the Burkas throughout the protest.
[...]
"We demand justice, and if it takes a dozen Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on September 11th 2006, then 300 Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on October 12th, the anniversary of the first bomb being dropped on the Taliban in the war of liberation, and then 1000 more Burkas surrounding the Afghan Embassy on November 12, 2006, the anniversary of the American liberation of Kabul, then we will do it. But the terror and oppression must be stopped."

The protesters handed the Afghan Ambassador, Sayed Jawad Tayeb, a videotape of Afghan Supreme Court Judges discussing the Idema case and stating that Jack is completely innocent. Further protests are planned in Washington, New York and London for October 16th. For more information, readers should visit the Free Them Now homepage.

So what else can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You can also contact any of the people listed in previous posts and make your feelings known.

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack

2006-09-13T08:30:00.000-04:00

9/11 happens, I’m in Los Angeles. They called at 5:00 in the morning said turn the tv on. I thought it was a prank call. I hung up on the guy. He calls me back a minute later–he says, Jack I’m telling you please turn on the t.v. I turn on the tv, I see the second plane hit. That was it for me. I was like, ok, I can’t believe this is happening. I’m from New York. What do you expect a New Yorker to do? I got pretty pissed off.

I went back to the army, said, look. I had a long relationship in Afghanistan, with Massoud, with the United Front Military Forces, which journalists call the northern alliance, but it’s not really. It’s an alliance of anti-communist, anti-Taliban, anti-terrorist forces that have been around for 15-20 years. Lead by Commander Ahmed Shah Massoud. Who was assassinated on September 9th -two days before- because Bin Laden said "there can be no victory while this man is alive". So he was killed on September 9. Now anybody that does not think these two things were interrelated–that Massoud was killed on the 9th, to break apart the United Front which held only the north 10%-they’d been driven back into the northern 10% of the country- anybody that does not think that’s related to 9/11 is insane. Massoud had prior to that, the December prior to that, given a speech to the US and said, if you don’t stop Al Qaeda and the Taliban now, if you don’t give me the resources and the money, I can guarantee you they will attack your cities, and New York will be first. Massoud was right. This is documented on film.

It really is worth quoting Jack at length here. What he has to say gives us an insight not only into his own desire to avenge the 3000 people murdered on 9/11, but also the way in which Al Qaeda and the Taliban viewed the Northern Alliance as their greatest enemies within Afghanistan.

Understanding how these two plots -- 9/11 and the assassination of Massoud -- were linked in terrorists' minds should have given the US State Department a clear picture of how to proceed with the reconstruction of Afghanistan. See, the Northern Alliance have always been the most pro-Western of the country's factions, and more, have been consistent in delivering freedom for the Afghan people while refusing to tolerate Islamofascism. This was why, when they arrived in Afghanistan in 2001, US and British Special Forces troops, Jack Idema among them, hooked up with the NA. It's also why, throughout 2001-02, Jack Idema continued protecting those members of the NA who entered Afghan politics -- Men like Yunis Qanooni, whose stint as Minister of Interior saw a huge reduction in terror-related bombings, and whose move to the Ministry of Education saw more schools built in the country than at any time in Afghan history.

Qanooni is now Afghanistan's first democratically-elected Chief of Parliament, but it was during his stint as Chief of the National Security Council and Presidential candidate running against Karzai that Jack Idema's team foiled an attempt by terrorists to assassinate Qanooni and other leading NA figures.

It was as a result of this investigation, which had the potential to both embarrass Karzai and derail the State Department's efforts at appeasing 'former' members of the Taliban, that Jack and his men were first arrested. In a week in which we recall the high-watermark of Al Qaeda's brutality in both the US and Afghanistan, it's worth reflecting on the men like Jack, Brent and Yunis Qanooni who continue to risk their lives in the fight to make sure the events of five years ago are never repeated.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack

...and the beat goes on...and on...and on

2006-09-06T08:46:00.000-04:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

Finally, it seems as though the story of illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldiers Jack Idema and Brent

Bennett is starting to attract the kind of media attention it deserves.

Indeed, over the past week, we've had the announcement of a film,

Disavowed, that focuses on Jack Idema, a wealth of intelligence footage of Jack arresting and interrogating Taliban detainees, and the internet

debut of a British documentary which includes an interview with Idema. Let's take a look some of these:

First up, then, is the documentary,

Guns For Hire, by Sam Kiley. Although it focuses on the work of mercenaries in Afghanistan, from
35 minutes in you can see an interview with Jack and some of his comrades in the Northern Alliance. It's actually worth watching the whole thing,

however, as the film paints a clear picture of what life is actually like for the guys who work in Afghanistan.

Another point worth making is the

obvious difference between Jack Idema and the mercenaries interviewed at the start of the film. Sure, these are all brave, decent men doing a difficult

and dangerous job. But. By their own admission, they're in Afghanistan for the excitement and the pay -- Contrast this attitude with Jack's insistance

that he is definitely not a hired gun, and that he has never been in the pay of a foreign power. So that's one thing. Another is the obvious

respect Idema has for his comrades in the Northern Alliance. This is something we've stressed time and time again -- That the NA are our greatest allies

in Afghanistan, and that if we're serious about defeating the head-hackers, this relationship needs to be cultivated.

Here's the

clip:

Free Video Hosting Watch More Videos

Next up, we

have a trailer for the upcoming film, Disavowed. Out around October this year, the film will tell Jack and Brent's stories, detailing how they

were set-up and betrayed.

This next clip

shows Jack Idema interrogating Malikyar, a terrorist with links to Osama Bin Laden and Gulbideen Hekmatyar. Malikyar was part of a plot, foiled by Jack's

team, to drive explosive-laden trucks into Bagram airbase, murdering hundreds of U.S. troops. This attack was to have been carried out alongside the

assassinations of the Afghan Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and key Ambassadors. The terrorists hoped that carnage on this scale would spark a

civil war.

And, lastly,

there's this clip, which is just a lot of fun:

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free

Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're

still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a

large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of

information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's

story.

You can also contact the people previously listed in this blog and make your feelings known.

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT

PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster
You Don't Know Jack

"it's a wonderful world" or is it?

2006-08-31T10:17:00.000-04:00

jack idema
The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

One of the biggest problems faced by those of us who campaign, week-in, week-out
for the release of falsely-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema and
his compatriot Brent Bennett is the fact that mud sticks.

What this has meant for Jack and Brent is that the outright lies that they were guilty of kidnapping and torture have been repeated so often that many people assume there must be some truth behind the allegations. There isn't.

The section of Jack's counter-terrorist work, then, that has bearing on his arrest and the charges brought against him involved:

Arresting suspected terrorists.
Interrogating them in order to obtain actionable intelligence.

Let's look at these in turn, weighing the
credibility of Jack's case against the claims made against
him.

First, then, was Jack entitled to make arrests? The U.S.
State Department and Karzai denied that this was the case, and, further, claimed
Jack was never operating in an official capacity. However, if this was really
the case, we need to ask ourselves how it is that Jack is able to provide ample photographic evidence to the contrary?
Indeed, the attempts to deny Idema was involved in official counter-terrorism
operations in Afghanistan begin to look more than a little shaky when you see
pictures of him:

Leading columns of Northern Alliance troops
Rescuing
civilians from earthquake-hit regions
Meeting with no less than five
top Afghan Generals

All of the above should, if nothing else, make the
Karzai/State Department denial that Jack was working in an official capacity
seem scarcely credible. And if that's that the case, how could he possibly be
guilty of kidnapping the terrorists in his custody?

Second, did
Jack torture anyone? This is, more than anything else, the aspect of the case
that disturbed most people at the time of the first (September 2004) trial.
Here's what Jack and his men were accused of in early
press-reports:

These terrorists, who were working directly for
Osama bin Laden and Gulbideen Hekmatyar, both on America’s Most Wanted list, now
claim they were tortured and abused; now claim we smashed their heads in bloody
bags, cut off fingers, poured boiling water on them, hung them upside down and
dipped them in boiling water, repeatedly burned them with cigarettes, beat them
day and night, and refused to feed them.

Certainly, this makes for
grim reading ... Only, here's the thing: No evidence that any of this took
place has ever been presented. None.

When the terrorists Jack and his team arrested appeared in court to give evidence against him, all were in good health, with nary a scold, cigarette-burn, missing finger or bashed head in sight. Also, no photographic or forensic evidence of the alleged 'torture' was produced, and all Jack's accusers refused to be sworn in (on the Koran) before giving testimony. Most tellingly, witnesses claimed that the head-basing and finger-chopping took place in the basement of Jack's house. One, small problem with this claim is that the property in question had no
basement.

So that's the 'case' against Jack Idema and his team. Now
here's Jack himself, describing the real methods he used:

We kept them
awake with 24 hours of non-stop questioning, played loud Rock and Roll music and
offered to let them work for us if they would turn over on the others. All that
we questioned turned on each other. When one didn’t, we did not beat him, we
simple confronted him with two that were cooperating and he quickly decided to
join the same team.
Once they told us a little we gave them non-stop Miranda
soda and restaurant kabob and promises of a new job working against
terrorism.
The soldiers in Iraq that claim their abuse of prisoners was
ordered by MI (Military Intelligence) are liars. You only have a few days at
most to get actionable intelligence. Let a terrorist sit in a cell and you lose
the initiative to find the others. Beat the terrorists and he admits to anything
or nothing. Again you lose. Humiliate the terrorist and he hates you and feeds
you lies.
Your only way to get the terrorists to talk is sleep deprivation,
promises for freedom if he gives up the other terrorists, and convincing the
terrorist you are his friend.

So who do we believe? A group of known
terrorists making claims that they either cannot substantiate or which are
demonstrably untrue (Jack's vanishing basement, the absence of bashed-in heads
and missing fingers)? Or a U.S. Special Forces soldier with decades of service
to his country behind him? Whatever the MSM who so-uncritically covered the case
might think, this isn't a trick question.

So what can we do? Well, anyone
reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack
Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao
or Rottweiler
Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly
short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section
devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a
timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available
over at SuperPatriots, without whose
work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You can also contact the following people and make your feelings known:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: – 301-560-5729 (Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown – 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908 (denied them water and mail at
Thanksgiving)

US Embassy Translator Wahid – new – 011-93-70201902

US Embassy Translator Bashir Momman– 011-93-70201923

US Consul (friend of Jack's Now fired) Dawn Schrepel– 011-93-70201908

Embassy of Afghanistan (Good
guys, Northern Alliance)
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Ph: 202-483-6410, Fax: no. 202-483-6488

Ambassador Massoud Khalili (wounded with Massoud)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
New Delhi, India

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (+1-202) 483 6414
Fax: (+1-202) 483 9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (+1-212) 972 2276 or 972 2277
Fax: (+1-212) 972 9046

Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E880
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Ph: (703) 692-7100
Fax: (703) 697-9080

Lt General William Boykin
Deputy Undersecretary
of Defense for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E836
Washington, DC 20301
Ph: (703) 697-0170
Private Fax: (703) 697-9080

Stephen Cambone
Principle Deputy Secretary for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E
Washington, DC 20310-0100

General Peter J. Shoomaker
Chief of Staff, Department of the Army
200 Army Pentagon – Room # 3E528
Washington, DC 20310-0200
Ph: (703) 695-2077 / Fax: (703) 614-5268

The Honorable John D. Negroponte
Director National Intelligence
New Executive Office Building
725 17th Street, N.W., Room 4203
Washington, DC 20503

The Committee
On Homeland Security
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: (202) 225-4121 / Fax: (202) 225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18
Email

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
310 New Bern Avenue, Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Fax: 919.856.4053

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (of Interest)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154 / Fax: (202) 228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2731 / Fax (202) 225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this
site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party
is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack
Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster

Here we are ...

2006-08-28T10:07:00.001-04:00

The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

Although illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema and his compatriot Captain Brent Bennett are now held under the protection of their friends in the Northern Alliance, it's always worth remembering how different things were for them in the months prior to their first trial back in 2004.

While the terrorists we capture are treated to lemon chicken, in the three months between his arrest in June 2004 and the start of his trial in September, Jack and his men were subjected to the following, appalling treatment:

Shortly after their arrest, they were subjected to varying degrees of torture and interrogation, apparently determined by rank. Jack Idema was repeatedly beaten by, and in the presence of- Amrullah at NDS Headquarters, as was Lieutenant Rasuli. A palace official was personally aware of and authorizing, at a minimum, Idema’s initial torture at NDS Headquarters by Amrullah, with FBI agents in close proximity and directing the interrogation.
During the following days and nights Idema was tortured with boiling water, starvation, threats of death, and assault with various implements (such as wire cables and rubber whips), resulting in broken ribs, a separated sternum, torn rotator cuffs, haemorrhaged eyes, multiple concussions, lacerations, contusions, and bruises. Although the U.S. Embassy later had medical reports indicating the extent of the torture, Sandra Ingram, Assistant U.S. Consul DOS Kabul, ordered the reports rewritten to tone down the extent of the injuries. During the torture Idema was restrained by Taliban iron leg bars and American Handcuff Company restraints (Serial Number # 177709) supplied by the U.S. Department of Justice. Further, reportedly FBI personnel were well aware of the ongoing torture and did nothing to intercede or stop it, and actually encouraged it.

Along with the physical abuses suffered by Jack and his men, they were also denied a fair trail. The judge, a 'former' member of the Taliban who had previously amused himself by sentencing women to death-by-stoning for adultery, announced that Afghan law was only 'a guideline', and that he intended to try Idema using the Taliban's legal system. What this meant, in essence, was that Jack and Brent were denied anything even approaching a fair trail, as is illustrated by the following:

Bennett finally got a female Afghan lawyer in September 2004, ten days before the final verdict. She met Bennett ONE TIME for 20 MINUTES. She promptly informed Bennett that if she represented him Bakhtyari [the trial judge] would not allow her to speak because she was a woman, and he did not normally allow women to appear in his court without a Burka. Then she dropped the real bomb– if she appeared in court for Bennett, she would be murdered.

Inside the courtroom the abuses of due process continued:

Jack read the law about being able to call a witness and Bakhtyari said, “ok, call your witness.” Fatah handed a secret note up once again. This time to Prosecutor Dawari, who read it, smiled, then handed it to Bakhtyari. The Taliban Judge read the note, chuckled, then said, “We will save calling witnesses until the next hearing and you can do it then, this hearing is finished.” After four more hearings, and a verdict of guilty, the defence had still not been allowed to call a single witness or ask a single question of any of the terrorists who said the were hung upside down at the first “press conference” which Bakhtyari later called a hearing.

Clearly, the verdict in this mockery of a trial was a forgone conclusion: Jack and his men were found guilty and imprisoned alongside the very terrorists they'd been hunting three months earlier.

Once behind bars, and out of the media spotlight, Jack was the victim of almost a dozen assassination attempts during prisoner 'riots'. Indeed, if it hadn't been for his allies in the Northern Alliance entering the prison and moving him to the relative safety of the annex he and Brent now occupy, he would likely have died in late 2004.

As things stand, Jack and Brent still rely on friends in the U.S. military to smuggle clean drinking water to them -- The U.S. State Department refuse to offer them any aid, and threaten anyone caught assisting them with disciplinary measures.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You can also contact the following people and make your feelings known:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: – 301-560-5729 (Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown – 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908 (denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving)

US Embassy Translator Wahid – new – 011-93-70201902

US Embassy Translator Bashir Momman– 011-93-70201923

US Consul (friend of Jack's Now fired) Dawn Schrepel– 011-93-70201908

Embassy of Afghanistan (Good guys, Northern Alliance)
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Ph: 202-483-6410, Fax: no. 202-483-6488

Ambassador Massoud Khalili (wounded with Massoud)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
New Delhi, India

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (+1-202) 483 6414
Fax: (+1-202) 483 9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (+1-212) 972 2276 or 972 2277
Fax: (+1-212) 972 9046

Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E880
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Ph: (703) 692-7100
Fax: (703) 697-9080

Lt General William Boykin
Deputy Undersecretary
of Defense for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E836
Washington, DC 20301
Ph: (703) 697-0170
Private Fax: (703) 697-9080

Stephen Cambone
Principle Deputy Secretary for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E
Washington, DC 20310-0100

General Peter J. Shoomaker
Chief of Staff, Department of the Army
200 Army Pentagon – Room # 3E528
Washington, DC 20310-0200
Ph: (703) 695-2077 / Fax: (703) 614-5268

The Honorable John D. Negroponte
Director National Intelligence
New Executive Office Building
725 17th Street, N.W., Room 4203
Washington, DC 20503

The Committee
On Homeland Security
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: (202) 225-4121 / Fax: (202) 225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph:      +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax:   +41(0)22 917 90 18
Email

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
310 New Bern Avenue, Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Fax: 919.856.4053

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (of Interest)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154 / Fax: (202) 228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2731 / Fax (202) 225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Kender's Musings
Irate Nate
The Devil's Kitchen
Cao's Blog
Big Dog's Weblog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
Right For Scotland
Freedom Folks
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Causes of Interest
Concatenation of Events
Hyscience
Stuck On Stupid
The Daily Blogster

Here we are ...still

2006-08-28T10:07:00.000-04:00

The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

In last week's blogburst, we concentrated almost exclusively on the military bona fides of illegally-imprisoned U.S. Special Forces soldier Jack Idema. While it's crucial that we take time out to remind everyone just who Jack really is, it's also important that we don't lose sight of the reason both he and Captain Brent Bennett wound up in prison in the first place. Here's Jack Idema speaking about his mission in the WoT:

Bin Laden and Hekmatyar and every al-Qaida and Taliban terrorist in the world call me some things I'm not allowed to write here -- because my goal is to bring this war to them all over the world -- wherever they may hide, sleep, or cower. This is a war, this ain't Sunday School folks. Do you want another few thousand Americans diving out windows in flames from 110 stories above the streets of New York?

Right now, as we're all forced to listen as Iran and Syria crow about Hezbollah's 'historic victory' over Israel, it should be easier to appreciate the good sense Idema is talking.

See, what Idema gets is that the only way to defeat Islamofascism is to capture or kill the terrorists on the ground. Attempting to reach any kind of understanding or accommodation with so implacable an evil will always be seen, by the Islamofascists themselves, as a sign that they are winning. This is, after all, the purpose of terrorism. These people know they're unable to win out against the West in a straight fight, so they try to grind us down, winning concessions in return for the promise of a peace they have no intention of delivering.

In Afghanistan, right now, this plan is already taking effect, with President Karzai nominating an 'ex'-terrorist, Abdul Jabbar Sabet, for the post of Attorney General. Here's what the Afghan Bar Association has to say about their new boss:

Sabet is a member, although he claims to be a former member, of the international terrorist group Hezb-i-Islami. This terrorist group is on the United States Terrorist Advisory, Canadian Terrorist List, and INTERPOL Terrorist Group Advisory. Mr. Karzai has attempted to legitimize a known terrorist with ties to Wanted Terrorist Gulbadeen Hekmatyar, who carries a $5 Million reward upon him. Even more disturbing is that a known terrorist, former or not, was nominated by Mr. Karzai to hold the top law position in Afghanistan, and control and administer American reconstruction funds.

For now, at least, the Afghan Parliament has succeeded in blocking Sabet's rise to power, though Karzai continues to support him.

Even more disturbingly, Karzai is attempting to appease Islamists by re-establishing the Office for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue [pdf]. For those unaware of the delights of Taliban rule, these were the people responsible for the old regime's worst excesses, imposing Sharia law on the Afghan people with the whip and the gun. Needless to say, after five years of living in freedom, ordinary Afghans aren't exactly overjoyed to find the religious police back on their streets.

... But surely there's a point to all this appeasement? Surely, at the very least, allowing terrorists to have a say in the running of the country is encouraging Islamofascists to lay down their arms and live in peace? How's that working out, then?

At least 11 suspected Taleban militants and one soldier have been killed in clashes in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, officials said.
Helmand's Deputy Governor Amir Mohammad Akhunzada told the BBC the army carried out operations in Gul Haji Qala village in Kajaki district.
Three militants were arrested and weapons seized from them, he said.
Earlier, three Nato soldiers were slightly injured in a bomb explosion in the capital, Kabul, officials said.

So let's put this together. In 2001, a coalition of U.S. and British Special Forces (including men like Jack Idema) hooked up with the moderate and pro-democracy forces of the Northern Alliance and drove the Taliban from power. For the people of Afghanistan this meant: democracy, unveiled women, bookshops, music, TV, internet-access, kite-flying and all the other trappings of freedom they have every right to enjoy.

For the Islamofascists who brought us 9/11, on the other hand, the choices were: a bullet in the head, a prison cell or a life spent hiding in a cave like a hunted animal.

Fast-forward five years, however, and the same appeasers who keep Jack and Brent imprisoned have given the Afghan people: religious police, a terrorist poised to run the country's judiciary and, emboldened as the head-hackers are by such successes, a huge spike in terrorist-related violence.

Contrast this with the solution Jack Idema proposes:

I believe that real Americans want real counter-terrorist operations, not bullsh*t press junkets and canned PR stories from PAOs that shot a gun once in their life on the basic training qualification range. I didn’t start this f*cking war, not the one with bin laden, nor the one with the press, they started it, but I will finish it, or die in the process.

This isn't bluster on Jack's part. Unlike the State Department and Karzai, he grasps a fundamental truth about war with Islamofascists: Appeasement. Does. Not. Work.

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You can also contact the following people and make your feelings known:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: – 301-560-5729 (Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown – 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908 (denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving)

US Embassy Translator Wahid – new – 011-93-70201902

US Embassy Translator Bashir Momman– 011-93-70201923

US Consul (friend of Jack's Now fired) Dawn Schrepel– 011-93-70201908

Embassy of Afghanistan (Good guys, Northern Alliance)
2341 Wyoming Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Ph: 202-483-6410, Fax: no. 202-483-6488

Ambassador Massoud Khalili (wounded with Massoud)
Islamic State of Afghanistan
Embassy of Afghanistan
New Delhi, India

H.E. Said Tayeb JAWAD (Afghan Ambassador- powerful in US)
Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington
2341 Wyoming Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20008
Tel: (+1-202) 483 6414
Fax: (+1-202) 483 9523

Mr. Jahed Hamrah, Consul General (pro-Taliban)
CONSULATE GENERAL OF
AFGHANISTAN IN NEW YORK
360 Lexington Avenue,
11th Floor New York,
New, York, NY 10017
Tel.: (+1-212) 972 2276 or 972 2277
Fax: (+1-212) 972 9046

Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E880
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Ph: (703) 692-7100
Fax: (703) 697-9080

Lt General William Boykin
Deputy Undersecretary
of Defense for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E836
Washington, DC 20301
Ph: (703) 697-0170
Private Fax: (703) 697-9080

Stephen Cambone
Principle Deputy Secretary for Intelligence
1800 Defense Pentagon – Room # 3E
Washington, DC 20310-0100

General Peter J. Shoomaker
Chief of Staff, Department of the Army
200 Army Pentagon – Room # 3E528
Washington, DC 20310-0200
Ph: (703) 695-2077 / Fax: (703) 614-5268

The Honorable John D. Negroponte
Director National Intelligence
New Executive Office Building
725 17th Street, N.W., Room 4203
Washington, DC 20503

The Committee
On Homeland Security
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Chairman Peter Hoekstra
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, U.S. Capitol
Washington, DC 20515-6415;
Office: (202) 225-4121 / Fax: (202) 225-1991
Toll Free: (877) 858-9040

M. Cherif BASSIOUNI
Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights
On the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph:      +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax:   +41(0)22 917 90 18
Email

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
310 New Bern Avenue, Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Fax: 919.856.4053

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (of Interest)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154 / Fax: (202) 228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2731 / Fax (202) 225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

2006-06-22T09:31:00.000-04:00

There has never been anything like this in the 20th or 21st centuries:

Main page: www.RogueRadioLive.com
The most unbelievable and compelling human drama in the last 100 years.

Get the latest photos, videos, and audio archives from:

RogueRadioLive.com

Log onto www.RogueRadioLive.com/roguegallery/page1.htm

Unbelievable images from the world's most infamous prison. They are calling for a worldwide Jihad against the Muslim terrorists!

He has withstood assassination attempts by the Taliban, bin Laden, a quarter million $ reward by al-Qaida, and a full scale assault by George W. Bush and his Brown Shirt FBI agents. The State Department has tried to silence him. The FBI has tortured him. The Dept of Defense has disavowed him. Amnesty International has ignored him. Karzai has tried him. The Taliban convicted him. The world trashed him. Federal Judges have withheld his water and food and justified his murder by denying his habeas corpus. Now he is Back! With a Vengence! And fighting from the very depths of hell on American radio. No one can stop him. No one can dispute his first hand knowledge of the war on terror. He is BOOTS ON THE GROUND. Every prediction he made has come true. He told us how to fight the Taliban and we ignored him, now the Taliban terrorists control Southern Afghanistan, and might eventually control Kabul.

You have to ask yourself if this is real? It is! Believe us, it is!

Can we do something?

2006-06-22T09:08:00.000-04:00

The theoretical scene above which Cox and Forkum so aptly put into cartoon format, is in beginning to become, to my utter sadness and dismay, sadly, commonplace. It is for this reason that we should continue to "Defend the Defenders" as Pantano's mother did when he was accused, and as the marines in Haditha find themselves accused; even before the evidence is all in.
Now, with the Taliban killing people left in right in the southern parts of Afghanistan, it will prove interesting to see what happens because there are already rumors that the government is going to call upon the Northern Alliance to do something about it. You know--the Northern Alliance "Warlords"? Who resisted disarming? There is good reason that they refused to disarm, the picture in Afghanistan is not a pretty one, and it just goes to demonstrate clearly that diplomats absolutely should have no voice in military matters.
Wouldn't it be interesting if that is in fact what happens and they will call upon Jack for his assistance in erradicating the vermin which Karzai has been trying to 'make peace' with?
400 dead last month, around 800 dead this month--the journalists don't seem to be complaining about the deaths of coalition forces...probably because they're not wearing black turbans and yelling 'allahu akhbar!"
With the recent hub bub about Haditha and their cries about human rights violations, what about the Taliban's human rights violations of coalition soldiers? I guess those don't count.
If something isn't done about this -by someone who knows something about terrorists and how to deal with them-(and not some guy sitting behind a computer who calls himself a counter terrorism expert who's never even been to Afghanistan)-the turnover to forces will be a literal bloodbath in favor of the Taliban.
The coalition deaths over the past two months have surpassed the entire death toll from the 2001-2002 war.
When Zarqawi was killed I noticed Khalilzad standing in the limelight with his thumbs up next to PM Maliki. I can't imagine he ever had anything to do with that...the only thing he seems to be good at is demonizing American soldiers, asking who shot first when there is a scurmish with a terrorist, and releasing more terrorists and then feigning surprise when more suicide bombings occur.
Yet, at this moment, Jack and Brent remain at Pulacharke prison and we'd still like to know why when the Taliban are running free; and they've been releasing MORE every month. The same policy of appeasement has begun in Iraq, thanks in part to Khalilzad, who moved from being the Ambassador to Afghanistan and screwed things up there pretty well, and then moved on to Iraq to do the same thing.
So what can we do?

So what can we do? Well, anyone reading this with their own blog can sign up for the weekly Free Jack Idema Blogburst by emailing Cao or Rottweiler Puppy for details. I'd urge everyone to do this, as we're still terribly short on takers. If you want to know more about the story, Cao's Blog has a large section devoted to Jack Idema. There's also a timeline here, and, of course, a huge amount of information is available over at SuperPatriots, without whose work none of us would have learned about Jack's story.

You can also contact the following people and make your feelings known:

Secret US EMBASSY Fax: – 301-560-5729 (Local US Fax: Goes RIGHT TO Ambassador)
c/o US Ambassador Ronald Neuman
6180 Kabul Place
Dulles, VA 20189-6180

US Consul Russell Brown – 011-93-70201908 (Fired)

US Consul Addie Harchik- 011-93-70201908 (denied them water and mail at Thanksgiving)

US Embassy Translator Wahid – new – 011-93-70201902

US Embassy Translator Bashir Momman– 011-93-70201923

US Consul (friend of Jack's Now fired) Dawn Schrepel– 011-93-70201908

UNOG-OHCHR
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Ph: +41(0)22 917 97 27 Fax: +41(0)22 917 90 18
Email

Senator Steven Saland (Jack's Rep and Neighbor)
9 Jonathan Lane
Poughkeepsie, NY 12603

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
310 New Bern Avenue, Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Fax: 919.856.4053

Senator Elizabeth Dole (Jack's Rep)
United States Senate
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100

Senator Richard Burr (of Interest)
United States Senate
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154 / Fax: (202) 228-2981

Senator Bill Nelson (in the fight on Jack's Side)
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building
Room 716
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-5274 / Fax: 202-228-2183
FL Fax 407-872-7165

Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bennett's Representative)
United States Senate
Hart Office Building, Room 331
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841

Representative Mike McIntyre (Jack's Representative)
United States Congress
2437 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2731 / Fax (202) 225-5773

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (reference Captain Bennett- CA citizen)
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841 / Fax: 916-445-4633

Finally, PLEASE NOTE: The SuperPatriots and Jack images on this site are used with WRITTEN COPYRIGHT PERMISSION and any use by any third party is subject to legal action by SuperPatriots.US

jack idema
afghanistan
Technorati Search for Jack Idema

The Free Jack Idema Blogroll:

The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill
The Lone Voice
Red Hot Cuppa Politics
Irate Nate
Cao's Blog
Theodore's World
NIF
Rottweiler Puppy
Making Headlines
My Newz n' Ideas
Right For Scotland
The City Troll
Sacramento Boxing
Acts of Aggression

Is this unbelievable, or what???

2006-03-24T08:22:00.000-05:00

The Free Jack Idema Blogburst

First off, we have some good news. After two anxious weeks without hearing from the three Americans illegally-imprisoned in Afghanistan, the Jack Idema, Brent Bennett and Ed Caraballo are doing okay.

Well, actually, Jack and Brent are doing more than just 'okay' -- They're well-protected by friends from the Northern Alliance and, in spite of the Karzai government's attempts to house terrorists alongside them, still have their quarters in the annex very much to themselves.

Jack's and the NA's best efforts notwithstanding, though, one person who isn't doing so well is Ed Caraballo:

But Caraballo, an Emmy Award-winning cameraman who said he was filming a documentary on the two others when they all were arrested, has been attacking prison guards and acting unstable, officials said.
[...]
Caraballo, who has converted to Islam and now goes by the name Najib, split from the men and lives separately, in Cellblock 1.
Almost three weeks ago, prisoners rioted and seized control of Cellblock 2 and tried to take over Cellblock 1. Many were said to be Al Qaeda and members of the Taliban. During the riot, Caraballo used his mobile phone to call reporters and say he was about to be beheaded.

Certainly, Ed's mental state has become a major concern of late -- Last week he even attempted to run out of the prison compound and had to be forcibly restrained. Right now, he is being kept under close watch by Northern Alliance personnel, who are becoming extremely concerned about Ed's state of mind.

Now, it has to be remembered that Caraballo is the least equipped of the three Americans to face the rigours of imprisonment. Unlike Jack and Brent, Ed isn't a soldier. He's a journalist. Back in 2004, he was making a documentary about Jack's work when he was arrested and accused of assisting with the 'torture' of Afghan prisoners. Of course, it should go without saying that since no torture actually took place, and no evidence was ever brought against any of Jack's team, this accusation is scarcely credible -- The Taliban judges who handled the 2004 case might just as well have accused Caraballo of helping Jack pull the wings off a flying pig.

What's more, Ed isn't some kind of two-bit hack -- He's a four-times Emmy Award winner, who's worked for CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, HBO and with Anderson Cooper,Dan Rather, Mike Wallace, Peter Jennings, Diane Sawyer, Connie Chung, Chris Cuomo, Robert Krulwich, Leslie Stahl, and John Miller, the man who personally interviewed Osama bin Laden.

Yet, as Ed Caraballo slowly collapses under the pressure of his unlawful imprisonment, the rest of MSM, who set up squawking about human rights abuses at a moment's notice, are completely silent about his plight. Indeed, a search for 'Ed Caraballo' over at Reporters Without Borders, an organisation specifically set up in order to highlight the imprisonment of journalists, reveals the following:

Your search - Ed Caraballo - did not match any documents.

Nothing. Not one mention of Ed in two, long years. Not one mention of the fact that his conviction, along with Jack and Brent's, was quashed on appeal over a year ago, and that all three men are being held in a legal limbo. Not even a word about Ed when, three weeks ago, he was forced to give an interview from Pulacharke with an Islamist's sword to his throat. Well, so much for RWB's stated aim of protecting the right of journalists to 'seek, receive and impart information and ideas regardless of frontiers'.

And so much for Ed Caraballo.